There’s snow in them there hills!

Driving to Trout River, NL

Packed a picnic lunch and left the campground about 11 a.m. for a drive to Trout River (in Gros Morne National Park). This ended up being a surprisingly beautiful drive. 

A view of Woody Point

We drove through a number of small villages, the most picturesque and lively of all of them was Woody Point, on Bonne Bay. It is from here that boat tours go out to tour the bay and give the passengers a view of Newfoundland from the water. We opted not to take one of these as we will get that view when we are on the ferry out of Port-aux Basques in 5 days.

It was about 12:45 p.m. when we arrived at the Seaside Restaurant in Trout River, touted for having the very best seafood. We decided to save our picnic lunch for another day and sample the fare at this place. We both decided to have a bowl of Mama’s seafood chowder and a dinner roll. I went to the ladies room and when I returned, there before me, sat a good size portion of a very thick chowder and a large fresh cloverleaf dinner roll. I have to admit it tasted good, but not anywhere as rich, and creamy tasting as the cod chowder we had at the café in Brigus or the seafood chowder we had at Squid Jiggers.

A water lily at the Discovery Centre

After leaving here, we dropped our speed to about 70 kph and just enjoyed the views.  We stopped at the Discovery Centre and asked the salesclerk at the gift shop about the white stuff we keep seeing near the tops of the mountains. She confirmed that it is – SNOW! We were surprised – as it is August 1^st and these mountains aren’t really that high. It turns out these spots have a northern exposure and even though the sun is shining on them today, it isn’t unusual to have snow until now.

At one point, there were green mountains on one side of the road and totally brown mountains on the other side – almost totally devoid of any vegetation. Marcel described it as “Arizona meets Northern Ontario”.  It was a fascinating view and one like I have never seen before.

  

Tablelands

 

These are called the Table Mountains and it is obvious why.

It was still only mid afternoon and I had read about a place near here called Big Falls where one can see the salmon jumping at this time of year. We decided to take the 20km drive along a gravel road on Route 422 to that site. When we arrived at the gate to Sir Richard Squires Memorial Provincial Park, the young lad there told us the admission was $5, but he was going to supper, so we were getting in free. He directed us to the parking lot. From there we found a (welcome) bathroom, and the path to Big Falls. We walked a short distance through the woods, towards the sound of rushing water.  Good thing we decided to hit the bathrooms first, or I really would have been in agony.

As we approached the first landing, I didn’t see anything and was disappointed. Then Marcel pointed to the falls and said – “look Jenne”.  And sure enough, there they were, salmon trying to jump the falls. We took photos. Unfortunately, not very many turned out, as it seemed we clicked the shutter just after they jumped. They are quick little devils. So, we have lots of the Falls and not many with salmon, but we did get a couple to remind us we saw the fish jumping. As we were about to leave, we noticed a very long staircase leading upwards and it looked like it may take us back to the parking lot. We decided to take it and the view from the top was spectacular. We could see 2 or 3 jumping at a time.  In the few minutes we were there, we did not count, but figured we must have seen at least 50. The park attendant told us, he counted 100 in 2 minutes that morning.

An information sign at the site said the following:

During the spring, summer and autumn, adult Atlantic salmon return to the rivers of their birth. In the fall, after the female selects a suitable gravel area and scoops out a depression known as a redd, the eggs are laid. The small pea-sized egg grows into an alevin, which then becomes a fry, a parr, a smolt, and eventually an adult salmon. A single, large female salmon will lay approximately 7500 eggs each year. Only 650 of these eggs will live to reach the alevin stage. Of the 650 alevins, 200 will survive to become part, 50 will reach the smolt stage, and only 4 will endure to adulthood.  Usually under 10 percent of salmon will survive their first spawning to return and spawn again.

The eggs are about 5 mm in diameter and remain in the river gravel throughout the winter. By spring, the eyes of the embryo are well developed and are the most obvious feature of the egg.  The egg hatches in April or May and releases the alevin, which stays hidden in the river gravel, where it grows to about 2.5 cm in length. The fish then develops through the fry stage, where it’s stripes begin to form along its side. It is then referred to as a parr. In Newfoundland the parr usually spends three years in the river, feeding on freshwater insects. In the fall of the third year, the parr’s stripes disappear, and the parr gradually turns into a silver smolt. In the spring schools of smolt move downstream and out to sea.

After its time in the ocean, the adult salmon returns to the river in which it was born. Often, the salmon must conquer large obstacles in the course of its journey, such as rapids and challenging waterfalls. The run starts in the spring and continues throughout the summer.

Before returning to our campground, we stopped at the local market we found a couple of days earlier to pick up more jams, jellies, fresh cream and butter. They were sold out of the Black Currant jelly and butter. We were told they will be getting more tomorrow, so will return for those items and pick up some fresh cream then.

After dinner tonight we spent the evening sitting outside with a couple we met from Port Hope, Brian and Debbie. It was a lovely warm evening. The bugs were bad, but Brian and Deb had Thermacell Insect Repellant Appliances that kept them away. These are available at Canadian Tire and will definitely look for them. Each appliance covers a 15'x15' area - perfect for sitting outside on the patio.